NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE: age of first use

1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

Age at First Use (Table 10.4)

Table 10.4 presents data on the average age at first use of cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs. As reflected in a substantial body of literature (e.g., Kandel & Yamaguchi, 1993; Yamaguchi & Kandel, 1984a, 1984b), the NHSDA-surveyed population initiated cigarette use at a younger age(15.5 years) than any other drugs. Alcohol, inhalant, and marijuana use also began at earlier ages than the use of other drugs, such as hallucinogens, heroin, and cocaine. In the young and middle adult age groups (i.e., those age 18 to 34), cigarette use typically began around age 15, followed by marijuana, inhalants, and alcohol use around age 16, and finally the use of other drugs (e.g., cocaine, hallucinogens, psychotherapeutics, and heroin) between the ages of 17 and 21.

Table 10.4 appears to show much lower average age of drug use initiation for persons aged 12 to 17 than for older age groups. This pattern, however, is at least partially due to the fact that the average age of initiation cannot be greater than the age of the respondents in that group. Consequently, for the 12 to 17 year olds, only relatively young ages of first use (i.e., 17 years or less) are included in the computation of average age of initiation. There might be real differences in the average age of drug use initiation for the birth cohorts presented in Table 10.4, but such differences cannot be readily discerned from data on reported age of first use until all cohorts have passed through early adulthood.

Going back as far as 1965, NHSDA data have been used to estimate the incidence (or number of occurrences) of first time use of selected substances in each year (see Johnson, Gerstein, Ghadialy, Choi, & Gfroerer, 1996, and OAS, 1998c, for details). These procedures also provide estimates of the average age of first-time users in each year. These estimates indicate that the mean age of first use for most substances has steadily declined. The mean age of first use of marijuana declined from a high of 20.3 among those who first used the drug in 1966 to a low of 16.4 among new users in 1996 (OAS, 1998c, Table 38). The mean age of first use of cocaine increased from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, but has since shown a relatively steady decrease (OAS, 1998c, Table 39). The mean age of first use of alcohol steadily declined from around 18 among new alcohol users in the late 1960s to 16.2 among new users in 1996 (OAS, 1998c, Table 43). By contrast, the mean age of first use of cigarettes remained fairly stable between 15 and 16 years of age from the early 1960s to 1995 (OAS, 1998c, Table 44).

This page was last updated on June 16, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.

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